Among the software assets that you can produce with AgilePoint NX are workflows—anything from simple process apps on up to complex flows that span organizations, linking together line-of-business systems, people, data, and content. RAP, of course, takes workflow to the next level, adding enterprise BPM capability, including the ability to make in-flight changes to workflows (splits, merges, rollbacks, skips, and application updates, etc.)

But AgilePoint NX’s unique architecture enables you to build workflows, business apps, and system integrations that go beyond even what most enterprise BPMs are capable of—a sort of application liquidity that allows them to adapt during run-time to changing business conditions. Here’s just a quick rundown of where, when, and how workflows built with AgilePoint NX can work for your organization.

Workflow in the cloud

AgilePoint NX lets you compose workflows in any standards-compliant browser by dragging-and-dropping system components onto a canvas. You can configure components using plain language—no coding required—and design forms that can be configured for any type of device.

AgilePoint NX workflows are composed of HTML5 and JavaScript, enabling them to integrate with almost any web or SaaS application. Workflows that connect other cloud-based point solutions and line-of-business systems are accessible within those systems.

Workflow on mobile devices

AgilePoint NX allows you to configure any workflow to run on any type of device and to design forms consisting of any type of field or control you could want.

After you’ve created a form, AgilePoint NX allows you to visualize how it will look on a smart phones, tablets, or desktop devices. For each type of device, you can modify forms by adding, eliminating, or resizing fields or other page elements.

Workflow across versions of SharePoint

NX allows you to integrate with SharePoint using WSP and Web Parts. Because NX is 100% web services enabled, there’s no need to ever modify or augment your SharePoint code case. For this reason, NX workflows will work in any version of SharePoint, including SharePoint Online/Office 365.

Beginning with SharePoint 2013, Microsoft is recommending that all SharePoint extensions be built using HTML5 and JavaScript—client-side technologies. Given that NX workflows consist entirely of HTML5 and JavaScript, they are in compliance with Microsoft’s recommendations and consistent with the latest thinking in cloud-integration ideology.

Workflow within applications

AgilePoint NX allows you to build workflows out of components (activities) from multiple different systems, including SharePoint, SalesForce, SAP, Oracle, and many other line-of-business systems. Because of NX’s design, NX workflows can be accessed from within any of the component systems. For example, you could build a workflow that interacts with your accounting system, your CRM, and your marketing automation system. The workflow could be configured for each of the three groups that need it, providing customized feature sets, and would be accessible within each group’s system of record. And, of course, users of the system would get custom views of their custom configuration of the workflow depending on the type of device they happen to be using.

Workflow when business conditions change

In today’s cloud-computing environment business conditions and technical requirements change frequently. AgilePoint NX workflows can adapt on the fly to changing business conditions by allowing you to reconfigure individual components in a workflow while it’s running.

AgilePoint NX’s unique architecture allows you to design a workflow so that components are reconfigured programmatically, based on feedback from other applications or devices.

Workflow in record time

AgilePoint NX’s state-of-the-art workflow designer allows you to compose powerful, cross-functional workflows by dragging and dropping any of hundreds of different activities from dozens of different systems onto a canvas and then configuring each activity using plain language—basically just plugging answers into fields. The concept is not only powerful; it’s also fast.

NX allows you to quickly create anything from simple forms having just a few fields and controls to powerful, tabbed forms having any combination of control types you can imagine (twenty-three different types, in all). Of course, NX forms can be quickly configured to run on any type of device—desktop, tablet, or hand-held.

Workflow when systems go down

Many BPMs and workflow engines are stateful, meaning applications remain in memory throughout process execution. With a stateful engine, in the event of a server failure or network outage, any process in mid-execution is orphaned, meaning, when the system comes back on, there could be some manual realignment that has to take place. For large organizations, an outage could affect thousands of incomplete processes and require enormous amounts of time and energy to fix.

AgilePoint NX utilizes a stateless process engine, meaning NX apps are not resident in memory throughout execution; instead, they are loaded when needed and then jettisoned within just a few milliseconds. This approach eliminates the possibility of orphaned processes.

And components in NX workflows are loosely coupled, which makes them stable and reliable.

And that’s just the beginning. To get a detailed explanation of AgilePoint NX and how it can help your organization, just give us a call or drop us an email.